All European countries have some class of protectionist rule for non-EU players already in place. In England you can only join a premiership club as a non-EU player if you're an international for your country, for example. In the Netherlands, clubs have to pay non-EU players an extremely high minimum wage which makes it virtually impossible for most clubs to afford those non-EU players in the first place. Free movement of footballers within the EU is enforced by EU rules, not by the Bosman ruling btw. Judging from your post and others there seems to be this weird perception outside the EU that FIFA have more of a say on European football than the EU does. It's the EU that decides on this people, Blatter can whinge all he wants.
From a selfish point of view I’d love to see everything you say happen apart from the clubs going out of business. It would give us all a level playing field again.
Although I like the reason behind that rule, I see some big problems for the big clubs. Arsenal, for example. From time to time, there isn't even a single on the field who could play for the national team of England. Would be great to see the sport getting closer together and I'm really curious how this whole thing works out.
That's the point though...now the sugardaddies are paying massive sums for world class players. If this rule happens? They'll still be paying massive sums, but the players won't be as good. Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool will all be fighting to get Ledley King and David Bentley because they're the best English players available. Good players...but there are better ones who are not English. Well, let me say they'll be paying massive sums until the quality of the game goes down due to poorer players playing and the world-wide attention (and money) goes away. Then the sugar daddies will go away.
The free movement is nothing to do with Bosman, that was about free agency. And your idea is so illegal it would have lawyers filling their pockets for decades. That freedom of movement means the freedom to make a living. Well, if you're American consider that your idea is the equivalent of a team based in California not allowing players from Oregon.
well, from a perspective of a fan who doesnt really have a favorite team and is a casual football fans (like me), woudl really hate this rule. it will no doubt bring the quality of the "best games" a notch down. What do i care about Fullham vs. Everton. I want to see Man Utd vs. Barcelona with the best players on each side. With this rule, i will probably have to settle with watching lennon play for chelsea in cl final or something.
Watching Arsenal with no English players is less attractive then seeing them without at least 4 English players. If this does not stop now then we will see the days where countries like Italy, France, Spain fail to qualify for the World Cup, and when that happens it may be too late to reverse this mess. My biggest fear is seeing a Italian Serie A with 65% foriegn rate like England has, in fact the Foriegn rate in all leagues are increasing about 1.0% every 6 months. This will create more diversity in the top leagues, its more interesting to me to see a mixture of clubs finish in the top 4 instead of the same old clubs every single season. 6+5
You're right, I guess I misinterpreted this passage... "Bosman claimed that as a European Union citizen, he possessed the right to 'freedom of movement' within the European Union if he wished to find work (then Article 48 of the Treaty of Rome - now Art. 39 of the EU Treaty). The transfer system prevented him exercising his right to freedom of movement and Bosman argued that the system should be changed so that players who were out of contract with their club could move to another club without the paying of a transfer fee."-http://www.liv.ac.uk/footballindustry/bosman.html ...to mean that it was the Bosman case which upheld the "free movement" rule for footballers that the EU had already put in place for workers. My apologies if that was the misinterpretation. But Blatter does sometimes have good ideas. Wasn't it him that proposed that women footballers wear shorter shorts or something? Edit: Yes it was. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/3402519.stm
Damn near all of them, unless you're one of those limp-wristed mofos from Soviet Britannia Then the criteria would be racial. Think before posting. Thanks for the clarification. See... this is the sort of question that people ask about France every day but never ask about Germany (Klose, Podolski, Kuranyi), or the USA (Dooley, Regis)...no, just France. Gee, I wonder why...
France (and, I believe, Spain) has missed out on a World Cup in the past (1994). So did England. Holland missed 2002. Nothing negative happened to football or to the tournament as a result. No one cared or even noticed that they were absent. Message to footballers with European citizenship playing at UEFA clubs: Man up and beat out the fern guy who wants your spot in the starting lineup. Then man up and qualify your NT for the next tournament. If you can't do both, stfu and consider finding another means of earning your living.
If you really want a level playing field in Europe try a Salary Cap. Or reduce the Champions League bonuses to individual teams and put more into a multinational development fund. Europe's competitiveness problem both within leagues and between leagues is about the inequitable distribution of TV money but yet again, the blame is placed on the foreigners. What will happen with the 6+5 rule: 1) Each national team will be spread out between Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal in England, Juve, Inter, AC Milan, in Italy, and Barca, Real, Valencia in Spain; 2) then each elite team adds three Brazilians, one Argentine, and one African player to starting line up in offensive positions to provide the flair your players can’t; 3) each top Champions League team will hoard then keep promising future internationals on the bench in case one of the star foreigners gets hurt; 4) each top team will rejoice in the fact that up and coming competitors can’t gain much of an advantage in scouting and developing talented foreigners as the top domestic kids have already been accounted for because the path to the national team runs through a few teams; 5) Spain and Italy (not England) will get even better national teams as Argentines and Brazilians of those descents will get a new and very, very valuable citizenship a la Amauri and Cammoranesi.
What weird conclusions you draw. Would you care to think back to the times that the 3 foreigner rule was still in place in European football? It's not that long ago you know. The only things that've changed compared to those days and what free movement within the EU has helped accomplish is that a) rich clubs have got even richer, b) even small clubs in rich leagues have surpassed big clubs in poorer leagues and c) unlike the old days, European football is set up in such a way that it is virtually impossible for clubs in poorer leagues to ever catch up. The CL has produced a vicious cycle. I would like to know how many people on BigSoccer actually ever ask themselves if in the long-term it is a viable situation that clubs like Blackburn have more to spend than clubs like Ajax. The situation in European football right now is just wrong and distorted, and what's worse is that if nothing changes, it will get even worse and more distorted. I don't think the 6+5 rule will ever become a reality as it really does go against EU labour laws. That said, something will have to change.
Yep your right, we should ask teams like blackburn to give some of their wealth to Ajax and other fallen giants....how fucking dare they not realise their place in the football world.
^^Yeah, I pretty much agree with that opinion...I don't quite see why all soccer players should have their freedom to work wherever they want severely curtailed just so Ajax can have an captive workforce to pick from.
I agree just look at how Inter haven't been able to win any Italian championships in the last 3 years because of the foreign players. Great points and it's definitely not a racist policy considering how Eto'o, Drogba, Toure, Adebayour are all white Africans.
My post pointed out only that they have missed. The parens are not related, nor should they be interpreted as such in the English language. 1994 refers to France.
Well If Italy ever fail to qualify, UEFA AND FIFA seriously need to look at other alternatives the would be a tragedy for all of Football.
When any reasonably talented team fails to qualify out of UEFA (doesn't matter who it is), UEFA needs to look in the mirror, not at FIFA. The bloated UEFA club schedule (and the sheer number of NTs) creates a weird WCQ that does not reward long-term quality. Not FIFA's fault.
Very much in favour! 1) Fans generally like it when more local players (or players from the same ethnicity) play for their teams; it's easier for them to identify with the "local lads", there is a greater willingness to forgive mistakes etc. 2) The crème de la crème of the foreigners (e.g. players of van Persie or Ronaldo's calibre) won't be affected. 3) The vast majority of club teams should not find it that difficult to adjust - it has to be taken into account that clubs like Arsenal, Inter, Energie Cottbus are still anomalies (with regards to the number of foreigners they field), it's not too much to ask a team to field 50 % local players. 4) It's likely that naturalization (when it comes to national teams) could be reduced (only established internationals of their own countries would be signed by clubs in other countries). 5) It may widen the gap between the 3-4 top teams and the rest of the clubs (in the same country), but on the other hand, it could contribute to the levelling of the playing field between the teams from the 5 elite leagues and the clubs from Ukraine, Portugal, Sweden etc. 6) Would make it easier to gauge the national team's potential from the quality of the league. It seems as if Blatter's proposal does not contravene EU law (if one is to trust the findings of Professor Gramke and his team, hope they were independently arrived at).
I really do not see why football should have anything to do with EU laws. Football should have its own rules. Anyway I am totally all for it. It would be one step in the right direction to saving Scottish football. League reconstruction would be the next. That’s a whole different matter though.
Blackburn have more money than Ajax because they are part of a bigger market . If Ajax don’t like that, they could take some action to become a part of a bigger market.
Eh? And do what? Move to a different league? Have you heard about the Atlantic League? Anyway I'm sure no team in the EPL wants this to happen. But outside if that I can't see many other people being against this idea.
On contrary, it would stimulate naturalization. Young players from small and poor countries could refuse to play for the countries of their birth because it would hurt their club careers. They could then switch into one of the richer countries , play there for 5 years , become eligible for their national team and no longer count as a foreigner .
Not moving to different league, but maybe lobbying their federation to form a joint league with Belgium or maybe even France.